August 15, 2017
I forgot my keys and a couple other things at my parents' house, so we went there for dinner on Sunday. Sunday night was exciting because the Mormon YSA Blog Spot got its first blogger in about two years. I am calling her the first of the second generation of writers. Since I was asked to get to work at 11 for my first day, it was easy going in the morning. It was easy for me, but not for Jessica. I prepared the Mormon YSA Blog Spot. My first day of work was chill. I met a lot of people, and saw two of the buildings that we are building. I arrived late to work, and I was let go early because I did not have a parking permit. I bought some boots and some socks that should last me for a long time. When I got home, Jessica was not doing well. I usually don't write too much about Jessica because she should have her own journal. The evening was slow. We were unable to have family home evening. I volunteered to serve at the Lehi Park on Saturday, but Jessica doesn't want to go camping. Life is very disorganized and new. I am kind of hoping that writing will get my mind un-frazzle.
Dinner at my parents' house on Sunday was the usual grill cheese sandwiches, kimchi, and hot chocolate. The hot chocolate and Kimchi was unusual thought. Mom made a new batch of Napa cabbage kimchi, which is not often, and dad put habanero (I believe) in the hot chocolate to add some spice. My parents received their Chinese student, Victor, yesterday for another school year of high school. I think that this is his second year with my family. He was into basketball, but he thoughts of the NBA now are of sorrow because a guy unnecessarily broke another guy's leg.
The new blogger for the Mormon YSA Blog Spot is named Viva Siale. Jessica doesn't have much interest in the Mormon YSA Blog Spot, so telling people in person about Viva has not been receptive; however, I have built a community around the Mormon YSA Blog Spot. Other people see the excitement. Viva wants to share her testimony with the world. She is a Tongan single mother of six children.
One of my first experiences at the job site was almost getting kicked off again, but the Apple's security was flexible because I did not have a parking pass. I should get a guest pass today.
My first experience in the office is being introduced to the other project engineer. I am learning a lot, but it is not overwhelming. I take a lot of notes. The other project engineer seemed to have sat in the office all day. Her name is Audrianna. She has been with the company for about a year and a half, and she studied at San Jose State University. Jessica is kind of thinking that we may have to move after this project. We will see. Since she studied at San Jose State and I hear that we worked with other people for years in California, we will most likely stay for a while.
I could talk about some other people, but I did not do much with them. When I got home, I met two of my direct neighbors. My next door neighbor is named Tom, and our neighbor below us is named Annadean. They are both not married but living with significant others.
At our apartment, Jessica was unmotivated. She was so unmotivated that she did not prepare herself any food to eat for breakfast or lunch. The apartment did not look any different when I arrived as she had goals to put things away. I counseled with her, and she had some alarming negative thoughts. I have learned not to overreact or over-think them. It is her nature. It took a while to convince her to do something. I want her to get up and do things for herself, so she will feel better. Her lack of motivation and productivity is even more depressing for her. It took a while, but she made herself dinner.
I am planning to live the life of an old fogey, going to sleep at 8 pm and waking up at 4 am. I want to do stuff in the morning like write in my journal as I am now. I woke up today at 4:30, and I want to work out in the evening when I get home early. I can choose my own schedule at work. 7 am to 4 pm sounds good.
August 16, 2017
Yesterday at work, I was put straight to work after my project manager showed me the campus and the theater. I got pictures, but I can't post them. The first role that I was given is to track the progress of the work. I did not finish the work for the day. When I got home, Jessica was doing better, but she still did not make herself meals. Her motivation is off.
The project manager gave me the plans, telling me to mark what is done, since the last time he did it a few weeks ago. It is mostly finished. It is a little hard to wrap my brain around the plans, but I am getting it without much instruction. I worked on it for the rest of the day. Today I have orientation, so my project manager let me go early.
At home Jessica seemed better. She actually started putting the house together; however, she did not muster up the motivation to make herself meals again. I had to rag on her for three hours to teach her that if she does not get the motivation to make herself meals that she will land herself in the hospital. She cannot survive on one meal a day. This experience is not new. She did the same thing last winter semester.
When I did get her to make a meal for herself, the way that she was cooking would take her hours to complete the meal, so I took over. Sunday supposed to be a day of least labor. This is why my family makes grill cheese sandwiches, but Jessica has been using the least labor foods. We used them up yesterday. I hope that she gets over herself soon. I also hope that the reader does not overreact or act on this information. Don't say anything to her, me, or each other. We need to solve our own problems without external intervention. Life is not all hunky dory. I am just being real with you. Jessica needs to figure out her new life now.
I wrote a few paragraphs about the project that I am working on with Columbia Stone, but I had to delete them because I can't share any information about the buildings.
August 17, 2017
Jessica did better yesterday food wise. She made herself breakfast, but she didn't make lunch. Orientation was very relaxed and easy, but the wait for the drug test and documentation completion process took a few hours. When I arrived at the job site trailer, it was lunch time. After lunch, I tried to go up to the building and record the progress. The shop drawings were so confusing. I would be multiplying inefficiencies of reading it, trying to understand the plans for each floor; therefore, I decided to go back to the job-site trailer and make a map.
My project manager thought that a map was a good idea to have and share among the company, so I feel that I am contributing well to the company to eliminate inefficiencies. I completed marking up the map yesterday, and I will complete it today.
I cooked rice in the old moldy rice cooker, which I told you about in a previous entry. Although I cleaned it, it still smelt like mold. Jessica wanted to throw it away still. I still used it because out small rice cooker would not cook enough rice. I knew that it would be fine. The rice was fine, and Jessica actually like my stir fry.
I arrived late from work yesterday because I needed to work until 5 pm, since I worked 7 hours the previous day. Jessica wanted me to get a spider catcher, but Walmart refused to answer my phone calls. I was unable to find the spider catcher locally.
August 18, 2017
I am not going to report on Jessica today because she was about the same as yesterday. My new work routine is working out well, starting at 7 am and leaving at 4 pm. I finished my map to help me easily navigate the plans before lunch. After lunch my project manager wanted me to go pick up some grout; then, I updated our progress sheets. I arrived at the apartment about 4:20 pm. The evening was a little slow. We didn't do much. The Mormon YSA Blog Spot is finally going to brake the 1295 likes barrier on Facebook. The rate of likes and unlikes of the page is about the same, so the growth is slow.
I wake up three hours before work, and one hour needs to be dedicated to getting to work. Finding a parking spot takes longer than driving to work. I write in my journal, read scriptures, cook breakfast and lunch, do some dishes with spare time.
People say that it take a half hour to walk to the parking structure, but at the end of work yesterday I saw that I needed to get back to the job site trailer with ten minutes until the end of my day. I walked to the trailer, made some final markings on the building plans, and walked to the parking structure in less than thirty minutes.
I wonder if I am doing well at work. I think that I am because my ideas are good, and I exceed expectations of productivity. I did not drive well, when I went to retrieve the grout. Google Maps was confusing. It said to turn right, but I would turn early. My project manager seemed to have the expectation to get the grout or finish the progress sheet for yesterday, but I completed both.
August 19, 2017
Yesterday I realized a depth of my role in Columbia Stone for this current project. I thought that I needed to leave an hour before to get to work at 7, but I got to work a half hour early. My project manager wants me to start tracking the progress of a new section of the project. It is a lot less confusing. On Friday evening Jessica was still stuck in the rut, but I spoke to her, resolving her bad attitude.
August 20, 2017
Saturday was very busy, and I was unable to complete my journal entry for Friday and Saturday, going into detail of the previous days. The day was busy because I had to drive to Lehi Park for a volunteer assignment by 8 am. After my volunteer assignment, I arrived home, and Jessica was not home for the first time. She was out doing laundry, which was refreshing. We did laundry. Later we went to eat ice cream and lunch to celebrate our monthly anniversary. After I went to work, tracking the progress that we made today. Jessica wanted to watch Spirit, the horse movie that I mentioned previously. The twentieth of August is a Sunday.
Today I published a Storify Post. I cooked myself French Toast. The Campbell Ward is nice. My aunt-in-law has a friend, who is in our ward, and the friend recognized Jessica after church. One guy said that he works near me, so we exchanged phone numbers that we might have lunch. One thing about communication is that if you procrastinate it, it will be forgotten most likely. I try not to procrastinate communication, but Jessica doesn't understand the importance. Sister Bradshaw, the family friend, wants us to visit them.
I now have to go into details of the past three days. Work was a little overwhelming. I started tracking two sections' progress, and the shop drawings for one section was confusing. I felt like I was losing my mind, double checking my mistakes.
I like my Columbia Stone because the company has good people at it, and I am trusted. My project manager is going to be gone for two weeks, and he trusts that I don't need anyone to tell me what to do. I can keep myself busy. I was given a role in the job to fulfill. I am surprised and grateful that I have been able to jump into the work so easily. If a general contractor hired me, I don't think that I would be able to be confident enough to work full-time without immediate supervision after one week of experience.
Jessica was out of it for the entire week, and I wanted to go celebrate that we finished the first week of our life in California. It took me a few hours to help her. I explained to her that I treat her as an equal. I thought of treating her like I have imagined that I would take care of a foster child. I would take the child on a walk, and have the individual explain to me their world; then, I would ask the child to tell me what the individual would like in life. Jessica has created a miserable world for herself this past week, and she finally realized her illogical behaviors. She was more productive yesterday, and she is fasting today for guidance on what she should do with her life.
We went out two days in a row Friday and Saturday. During a previous restaurant meal, Jessica got a dish way better than mine, but mine was way better than hers on Friday. We have decided to not cook ourselves meat; unless, the consumption of meat is our only option to survive. I believe that the word of wisdom states this lifestyle. This weekend Jessica and I started ordering vegetarian dishes for ourselves. Don't ask me about the different types of vegetarian lifestyles. I don't care. I won't convince anyone to not eat meat, and I won't cook you meat if you visit me because I don't cook meat.
On Saturday I volunteered to serve at Lehi Park. When I arrive, after driving the craziest roads of my life, I realized that the location played a bigger part in my life than I previously recognized. I love that location because I have camped their multiple times. A pioneer trek, which I participated in, finished there. I enjoyed that I knew people when I was looking for guidance on where I should be. Jon Day hailed me as a good friend, saying that he lived in the Campbell ward for years, and I will be taking his spot in the ward. Other people that I am more familiar with gave me less time. I saw Murray Fontes and Phil Wentworth. I don't need to go into details, but I thought that it was interesting. It seemed that they were focused on their task of teaching children orienteering or pipe soldering that they did not embrace the people of the moment. I mean me.
My nature is soft spoken. I have counted four situations in Campbell, where people think that I said that my name is Alan. I have never noticed this my entire life. I joked with Jessica that I should have a name tag, saying that my name is "Alex not Alan."
I helped with two projects in my Lehi Park experience, which were related. On the drive up, I was confused because I saw that a project of the service opportunity was to relocate gravel that fell into a lake. A facility manager thinks that an ill-willed neighbor stole the water in Frog Lake. The first project that we did was fortify against the entry of the intruders. I felt like I was participating very minimally at first because I am scrawny, but I became a leader as things got rolling. The first thing that we did is pound some rods into the ground to block their entry. The rods were also placed to support the logs and wood placed before it. I participated very minimally until a man named Reed, who is a member of my ward, started to get things rolling. I started looking for wood to fortify our boundary. I figured that we needed to raise the standard of effort because a fence that is put together with little effort can be taken apart with little effort. The big guy who pounded the rods in, who is named Joe, pulled a bigger log from the woods. I saw an old log. It was big, and it did not weigh much because it has decayed. I thought that it was funny that the big guy said that he was intimidated by it, but I, the scrawny boy, was attempting to carry it to the boundary. I participated well because I raised the standard of fortification of the borders of Lehi Park.
The extraction of gravel from the lake coincidentally was made convenient because the ill-willed neighbors pumped the water out of the lake. The gravel was washed into the lake because the previous winter got a lot of rain. We had too many workers, and I was happy to say that I stepped back and made the extraction of the gravel run much more efficient. We had two wheel burrows initially, which were being located in awkward locations, where eight people would shovel the gravel into one of the two wheel burrows. There were too many workers and there were too much wasted effort. I led the operation to be leaner. I suggested more logical locations for the wheel burrows and two loading spots. We were able to load a wheel burrow before the second one was returned. I am grateful that I had been able to apply the skills of construction management yesterday. We finished an hour earlier than expected as we were planning to work from 8 - 12.
I went to work on Saturday to quickly record what our crews did because I need to create productivity rates of our crews. The rates are based on stones placed per day. It didn't take long. We did place some stone. I think that we had two crews working. One on the stairs, and the other was working on a vestibule. The vestibule crew placed 6 pieces and the stair crew placed two pieces. I don't think that two is bad because the real issue with the stairs is its complex angles. A crew member said that they would need two days to orientate themselves before permanently placing the stone of the stairs. Another set of stairs took two weeks to figure out.
Sister Bradshaw stopped us after church to introduce herself as Claribel's best friend. Claribel is Jessica's aunt. Somehow she recognized Jessica; although, she was two years old when Camille Bradshaw saw her last. We caught up, learning her relationship to the family. She invited us to meet her family. Claribel introduced Sister Bradshaw to the gospel, and Jessica's family played a large role in her conversion despite language and cultural barriers. I think that Camille said that she was Iranian.
This evening we went to visit my parents because they shopped for us. They have been so supportive. I revealed to them that I was worried that I was going to be unable to save up enough money in two weeks to pay rent, but I think that I will be able to.
One thing that was funny is that I stopped a member of the bishopric on Sunday, asking for a time to meet them personally. We made arrangements for them to come on Tuesday. After church Jessica said that the relief society presidency asked to visit us at our apartment, and Jessica said that Thursday would be good for them to visit. Last week we arranged for the missionaries to come for dinner on Wednesday. On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, we will have company. We made sure to grab foldable chairs at my parent’s house for them. I hope that we are jumping into our new ward well.
This past week I tried our old moldy rice cooker, giving it a second chance; however, we have decided that it should be thrown out because mold is growing back in the rice cooker much more quickly. I should go out and buy a new big rice cooker.
